Soviets Welcome China Trade Envoy

July 10, 1985|By United Press International.

MOSCOW — Chinese Vice Premier Yao Yilin arrived Tuesday on a visit aimed at quadrupling trade with the Soviet Union and said he hoped his talks would lead to normalization of relations between the two communist giants.

The official Tass news agency said Yao was greeted at Moscow`s Sheremetyevo airport by a delegation of Soviet officials led by Vice Premier Ivan Arkhipov.

``I hope the visit will be crowned with success,`` Yao said. ``This will promote normalization of Chinese-Soviet relations.``

He said he would discuss developing trade and economic links with the Soviets as well as ``other questions of mutual interest,`` an apparent reference to the longstanding disputes that have chilled relations between the two nations.

Yao, one of China`s top economic policymakers, was accompanied by five vice ministers on his eight-day official visit at the invitation of the Soviet government.

Yao, 68, was returning a trip to Peking made last December by Arkhipov, the most senior official to visit China since 1969.

Yao`s visit is to climax with the signing of a 1986-90 economic and trade pact, which Western diplomats say is expected to increase Sino-Soviet trade fourfold--to $6 billion--by the end of the decade.

Trade between the Soviets and the Chinese this year is projected at $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 1984.

Western diplomats say Yao and Soviet officials also will discuss possible Soviet aid in renovating up to 400,000 Chinese factories--many built under Soviet guidance during the 1950s. Several were left incomplete when Moscow recalled more than 1,300 Soviet experts from China in 1960 as ideological and territorial disputes ruptured relations between the former allies.

In 1982, Peking and Moscow began normalization talks. Three major economic and technological accords were unveiled last December, and a 1985 cultural exchange agreement was signed last month.

But China views Soviet military deployments along its northern border as a threat and is concerned by the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and Moscow`s aid to Vietnam, China`s enemy.

In a possible reference to lingering disputes between Peking and Moscow, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Yao as saying that he would raise topics of ``common concern`` during his talks with the Soviets.